Wayne Labs

Wayne Labs has more than 30 years of editorial experience in industrial automation. He served as senior technical editor for I&CS/Control Solutions magazine for 18 years where he covered software, control system hardware and sensors/transmitters. Labs ran his own consulting business and contributed feature articles to Electronic Design, Control, Control Design, Industrial Networking and Food Engineering magazines. Before joining Food Engineering, he served as a senior technical editor for Omega Engineering Inc. Labs also worked in wireless systems and served as a field engineer for GE’s Mobile Communications Division and as a systems engineer for Bucks County Emergency Services. In addition to writing technical feature articles, Wayne covers FE’s Engineering R&D section.

Senior Contributing Technical Editor

Tech tools to help processors make sense of today’s supply chain

Supply chain hurdles created by COVID-19 provide an opportunity to attack deficiencies with the latest technology

Wayne Labs

February 7, 2022

While we hope the COVID-19 pandemic is fading into the background, we still need to be concerned with labor shortages, transportation interruptions, political issues, weather extremes, and other peripheral circumstances that can still break critical links in the supply chain.

Ignition software from Inductive Automation runs on traditional screens operating on Windows or Linux

Industrial Software

Application software: Updates, connections and design considerations

Your process control applications should just work and communicate with your devices—from one update to the next

Wayne Labs

February 2, 2022

With software upgrades, users should not have to relearn what they already know--and user interfaces need to be constructed with the end user in mind.

Food Fraud

How sweet—or potent—is your honey?

While adulterated honey can have unreported sugar added, that’s not the only thing that’s been found in the sweetener

Wayne Labs

January 13, 2022

Honey can be a vehicle of food fraud or contain illegal ingredients

Sustainability is an important part of the B-Corp Certification

Sustainable Companies

Kudos to the food and beverage industry

It ranks the highest in B-Corp Certification worldwide, compared to other industries

Wayne Labs

January 12, 2022

Food & beverage companies rank highest in B-Corp Certification

Engingeering R&D

Novel “raslysation” technique works with non-clear/opaque liquids

UV sterilization technology works successfully in water treatment plants and HVAC systems, but milk and juices too?

Wayne Labs

January 11, 2022

UV sterilization technology works successfully in water treatment plants and HVAC systems, but milk and juices too?

Blockchain technology: Is it ready for prime time?

While there have been many success stories, blockchain technologies are still developing, so producers and processors will need to examine their needs carefully

Wayne Labs

January 4, 2022

Blockchain providers are working hard to gain the acceptance of food and beverage processors—no matter their size, and standard datasets like GS1 are helping to define the rules for consistent information handling.

USGS: Integrated Science for the Study of Perfluoroalkyl and Polyfluoroalkyl Substances (PFAS) in the Environment

Environmental Health

PFAS dangers: The saga continues

While FDA, EPA and NIH have been studying PFAS in water and food, the U.S. Geological Survey suggests there’s much more work to be done

Wayne Labs

December 22, 2021

PFAS chemicals in our environment can be dangerous to humans and animals.

Organizations - Industry 4.0

SME, CESMII work together to drive the adoption of smart manufacturing

When manufacturers need help in planning automated systems, these two organizations have aligned resources to educate and find talent

Wayne Labs

December 17, 2021

Smart manufacturing gets some help from SME and CESMII

Buildup of fats, oils and greases over time can cause expensive problems

Wastewater Streams

When the FOG lifts…

It’s time to clean the fats, oils and greases out of your lift station. Here’s a quick checklist of concerns caused by FOG

Wayne Labs

December 15, 2021

Failure to clean FOG buildups on a regular schedule can cost a lot later on.

System Integration

Choosing and working with a system integrator

Think of a system integrator as an extension of your own engineering team, one who will work with you for years to come

Wayne Labs

December 15, 2021

Many large food and beverage manufacturers have their own engineering staffs, which provide system integration and automation services to their various facilities. However, most medium- and small-sized processors often don’t have these capabilities—and may have just a single plant engineer.